The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the outbreaks that has caused global health problems. During this pandemic, we have experienced difficulties in accessing medicinal products, medicinal raw materials and medical devices due to lockdown policies implemented by countries to anticipate the impact of the spread of COVID-19.

Over the past three years, Indonesia and the rest of the world have been hit by the Covid 19 pandemic, where this crisis has awakened us to immediately transform the health sector. The pharmaceutical sector still relies significantly on imported products and raw materials. The independence of domestic pharmaceutical and medical equipment products is needed for the resilience of the health system.

According to a Balitbangkes study on the use of traditional medicine in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many as 79% of people consumed traditional medicine to help increase endurance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Phytopharmacology is also used in pharmacological therapy for patients with mild symptoms according to the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Clinical Management Guidelines in Health Facilities.

Lesson learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, that we must increase the resilience of the pharmaceutical sector. The potential of our resources must be utilized, especially in developing traditional medicines and reducing import dependence.

Phytopharmaca development is one of the priority targets in health transformation, which is included in the 3rd pillar, namely the transformation of the health security system to optimize the huge potential of natural raw materials in Indonesia and to encourage economic growth.

In 2022, the target of phytopharmaceutical raw materials development is 11 (eleven) raw materials, which will then become 27 phytopharmaceutical raw materials in 2024 (cumulative).

The government has set a target for the realization of spending on goods/services of domestically produced products of micro, small and cooperative enterprises of at least 40% with a value of IDR 400 trillion. This target is almost impossible to be executed exclusively by one actor, but demands collaborative action across sectors.

To collaborate and synergize programs with relevant stakeholders in the context of developing domestic phytopharmacology, the Directorate General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices through the Directorate of Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Resilience held an FGD on ABGCI Synergism in Accelerating Domestic Phytopharmacology Development.

The activity, which was held on Thursday, February 9, 2023, was attended by offline participants consisting of representatives of the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, representatives of the POM Agency, representatives of the National Commission for Herbal Medicine Saintification, the Ministry of Health Team and online participants through the zoom meeting media.

In his remarks, Director of Pharmaceutical Security and Medical Devices Roy Himawan said that the development of phytopharmaca from upstream to downstream aims to improve the innovation ecosystem and ABGCI coordination is needed. "The development of phytopharmaca starts from determining the type of phytopharmaca, planting and cultivation of raw materials, harvesting and extraction, testing of raw materials and phytopharmaca preparations, registration, phytopharmaca production, to downstream with the promotion and utilization of phytopharmaca," Himawan added.

In the future, efforts to realize phytopharmaca resilience will be directed at developing and increasing the availability of natural raw materials to meet the needs of the traditional medicine industry, facilitating relationships between researchers and industry for the development of phytopharmaca products from upstream to downstream, assisting the phytopharmaca industry in the clinical trial stage to registration, and encouraging phytopharmaca to be included in the JKN program benefit package.